Vol. 3 Chapter 26: Operation Fake Death (I)

I had been standing at the same position for some time, and I looked as if I was staring blankly at the sky. At this sight, Dorumi had no idea what to do, and in the end, she had been leaning against the wall the entire time.

“You don’t wish to idle here as well, right? Why don’t you play out an act with me?”

I turned and spoke to Dorumi who was against the wall.

“An act?”

Dorumi revealed a skeptical expression.

“Don’t we already look like we’re acting right now?”

“Well, that maybe the case. However, it isn’t a very feasible plan to simply wait for midnight to arrive. What do you say?”

I smiled at her, and after hearing what I said, she nodded.

“… Indeed. To tell you the truth, by staying with you, my identity might be exposed. I actually spent quite a bit of money to obtain this identity. It will be unfortunate if I lose it.”

“As such, Aliyah and Dorumi, help me out with something later. After we’re done with that, we can leave for the night. How about it?”

Since Dan and the rest shouldn’t be able to recognize me with my disguise, I was able to ask for help this openly. In any case, it’s not like I’m telling them to protect me.

“Sounds interesting. Dorumi, let’s help him.”

“Do you think I have any other choice? Aliyah, how did you come to know a weird guy like him?”

“Guess.”

“Because birds of a feather flock together?”

“You’re referring to yourself, right?”

“… You’re not exactly wrong.”

Ignoring their tsukkomi’s, I coughed twice, and continued.

“Alright, there will be another person coming to help. As such, later, you girls will be doing this…”

……

10 minutes later, I walked out of an inconspicuous restaurant.

Of course, this time around, I wasn’t fully disguised, rather, I appeared openly with my usual appearance in Gray Magical Academy.

But why did I say it wasn’t a full disguise? Because whenever I appear in the academy, I would have already dyed my hair golden.

Currently, it was the perfect time for dinner, and there were many people walking on the streets.

Excluding the few people that came from afar, for example, people wearing armor like Aliyah, the rest were wearing robes. As long as I do not approach them, they wouldn’t be able to notice me.

Probably adding the fact that they weren’t able to find me for a quite a long time, their attention towards me had decreased, and the number of people greeting me on the streets decreased as well.

Is this what they call the calm before the storm?

I chuckled. I quickly cut across the center of the business district, and headed towards my dormitory.

Just when I was about to step out of the business district, a black figure immediately descended from the skies, and with a cold white flash, a dagger pierced towards my neck.

Aliyah, who had been stationed at the side, quickly pulled out her sword, and blocked the dagger before it was able to touch my neck.

Dang!

A deafening metal clash resounded, and my ears rang. It felt like my eardrums were going to explode.

And, although the dagger was blocked, the air pressure created was still able to pass through, and a cut was made on my neck.

Oh my god, Yuon’s attack is seriously really strong. If I hadn’t drank a potion that would isolate pain, I would probably die from the pain.

And beside my HP bar, a ‘Poisoned’ status icon appeared as well. She actually applied poison as well?

However, for the sake of making this realistic, I immediately froze my wounded neck and pulled out my Blasphemer. Pointing it at Yuon, I cast a Icicle Field of Light.

Why did I use a Light and Ice Composite Magic spell? Because its damage was high?

Of course not. Light Magic is only effective against Dark Magic, and with my current level, a magic spell like this will only bring harm to people who were LV 15 and below.

The reason why I used it was because this magic spell was the flashiest.

In an instant, the entire business district was lighted up by the shining ice crystals, and countless light rays were reflected among the icicles. It looked pretty impressive.

Of course, to prevent any harm to the innocent masses, the act was staged at the corner of the business district.

The black suited Yuon leapt out from the roof of the building at the side, and flashed towards me, while slicing the incoming icicles.

Aliyah and Dorumi stepped forward to block, but with a single slash, the two of them were sent flying. Even their weapons shattered from the impact. and then, she pierced her dagger straight into my neck.

‘Does it hurt?’

Yuon suddenly sent me a message.

Was the reason she used this method to communicate because she knew this attack of hers had pierced my windpipe?

‘I drank a potion which isolated my senses of pain.’

‘Hmph! Count yourself lucky! Just to let you know, the fatal aspect of this attack of mine is that it could cause my targets to suffer so much pain that they would rather die.’

‘You used this skill on purpose, didn’t you!?’

‘Obviously?’

‘Damn you…’

When I finished typing that last sentence, I could no longer feel my hands touching the keyboard.

As I have entered the state of apparent death, I already lost control of my body.

Yuon then pulled out her dagger and pierced it right into my heart. Since I received an attack in my current state, I died immediately.’

You have died.

As your race has been changed to an Undead Holy Angel, you will resurrect in the cemetery. You will be resurrected in an hour.

Title Unlocked: [Suicider] Ability Unlocked: Cursing the World For every self-willing death, a death marker will be recorded. For every 50 death markers collated, the user can choose any one person to die.

What a resentful ability. To think I had to die 50 times in exchange for killing a single person once, just how much resentment must I have to do this?

However, that’s not the point. The point is that, I’m currently dead, and it was right in front of a large crowd.

With this, there should be a lot of people who thinks that I died, right?

Who would possibly know that I would resurrect in the cemetery in an hour?

PoV: Yuon

Oh my god, this guy is seriously willing to do anything. I didn’t think he would actually wanted me to kill him.

He knew he would be able to resurrect in a short period of time. There isn’t any point in killing him either. His head would disappear and turn into fragments in a matter of minutes, so it isn’t possible to deliver it back for the bounty reward.

His ‘corpse’ was currently lying on the ground. I pulled out my dagger from his chest, and retrieved his weird wand with a sword tip.

If I recall, this guy said that he prepared a magic crystal at the bottom of his wand. I inspected the wand, and threw the crystal on the ground when I found it.

Immediately after, I sped towards the roof. And at the place where I killed Fir, a giant ice flower of about 2 meter in size sprouted, enveloping his entire body.

I looked towards Fir’s two companions who were lying on the ground. They’re actually faking unconsciousness. Geez. I can see that you girls are squinting your eyes, you know?

However, indeed, it’s best that I leave this place as soon as possible. My ‘Sanguinary Hearing Radar’ had already detected several experts rushing here from all around the academy.

Suppressing my aura, I kept Fir’s wand in my ring, and disappeared quickly into the shadows.

PoV: Fir

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the star-filled sky. What a wonderful feeling.

It would have been better if there wasn’t the smell of rotten flesh all around me.

I crawled up from the ground and dusted off the dirt and mud off my body. I then inspected my body.

Resurrection successful, and I feel better than ever.

After that, I looked at my surroundings. This was the cemetery beside a cathedral, which was situated at the corner of the academy. Honestly, there isn’t much of a difference between resurrecting in the cemetery and in the cathedral, is there? Other than sleeping on the ground, filled with the smell of fresh and rotten corpses.

From afar, I could hear the commotion from the academy, and it seems, everyone was in an uproar. Looks like my plan was successful.

I immediately disguised myself, and changed into a Water Magician’s robe. Otherwise, it would be trouble if someone saw me with my usual appearance.

However, I suddenly heard something metallic dropping onto the ground. When I turned to look, it was actually my ‘Blasphemer’!

“How was your sleep, careless one?”

On the roof of the cathedral, Yuon smiled and asked.

“Not bad. Deaths are pretty worth it, you know? Not only your HP and MP, your fatigue meter is filled to the brim as well. Committing suicide once a day would definitely guarantee a healthy body.”(t/n: Kids, do not try this at home.)

“If you’re that bored, then do it. Alright, tell me the location of the entrance to the underground dungeon. This isn’t a place where I could stay for long.”

Well, the requirement WAS only to “seem” as if he survived, not to actually survive… as long as they can’t prove he is dead ( which they can’t – the body was hidden by ice, then disappeared), and he shows up in time, he wins…

Title Unlocked: [Suicider]
Ability Unlocked: Cursing the World
For every self-willing death, a death marker will be recorded. For every 50 death markers collated, the user can choose any one person to die.

Doesn´t that ability make him invincible?
He can just kill himself every evening instead of going to bed.
Then after reviving 1 hour later he can do it again.
With 8 hours for sleep he can kill himself 8 times a day.
So he can get 1 free kill within one week.
And since all his statuses are returned to full as well as death is actually like sleeping for him he doesn´t need normal sleep anymore.

And with this he can complete his main quest “revenge”.
He can just die 50 times and then tell use the ability to kill the king of Mitchel Kingdom.
Therefore completing his quest and become king or provincial chief of Mitchel kingdom himself immideately.
Has the author even realized that he created such a shortcut for Fir´s main quest with this ability?

We dont know exactly what other penalties there are besides losing his weapon. He might lose levels or even stats. Remember that he was revived by necro magic the first time he died. Though yes its Op but dont think MC want a painful death all the time

He can just use that medicine that cancels pain out and he only lost the equipment he wore at the moment while all things in his special inventory are safe.
So all he has to do is:
1. Sneak to the cemetery at night
2. Put all his items except normal clothes into his inventory
3. Use a deadly but painless poison created by Lanya on himself.
4. Die a few seconds after 3.
5. Revive 1 hour later
6.Repeat from 3.
7. Stop shortly before daybreak and sneak back into his room.

Also there are no other penalties for that ability.
If there were any negative effects for dying then he would have not replied to Yuon like that after reviving.
Instead of saying he rovered completely he would have complained about what stat decreases he´d have gotten.
So there are no negative points except for 50 deaths per use.

fine, If you let me I will kill you 50 times. then you can retaliate by magically killing me or a single family member, but you would have to experience death 50 times for a single kill, when you could much easier walk up to my family with a knife or gun and you would get 2 or 3 before dying once >.>

It’s not a shortcut, it’s a trump card for much later in the story I would assume. to be used only on an opponent you really cannot kill but absolutely must.

Who said that he must be killed?
He can just use a deadly, fast acting but painless poison on himself.
I´m sure Lanya has such a thing in her possession.

Also he can´t simply go back to the kingdom because ifhe were to try to invade the palace then he´d have to face the whole army.
So even with his level 19 he wouldn´t reach the king.
Furthermore he´d be seen as murderer.

But if he uses that ability then no one could link him to the king´s death.
Also as I replied above to another comment he can “die” several times each night.
And therefore he could easily obtain one use of the ability every week.
So no matter what kind of strong enemy appears he can just usekill that enemy.
It´s not like there´d be an invincible opponent every week.

i seem to recall the highest lv in the castle was 15… and the royal bodyguards were about lv 13. If he was a vengeful guy he could totally go for death pushes against the king. But he will not, because that is not him

The highest leveledperson he saw was the king with level 15.
However that doesn´t mean that there isn´t a stronger person around.

You see the king intended to use that blue key to wage war against the whole world.
However to do that he would need to reach the bottom floor of the dungeon below the city.
And as we learned about it during Fir´s time in there already on the second level there are monsters far stronger than level 15 – maybe level 20 or higher.
So on the third floor you have to expect monsters around level 30 or even higher.
Furthermore there´s usually a guardian / boss in the final room who is even far stronger than the other monsters on the final floor:
So that bossmonster would probably be level 35-40.
Yet the king of Mitchell Kingdom was sure about being able to activate whatever is hidden in that dungeon.
Therefore he must have retainers or hired personal over level 30.

nope he have a title whatever goes right, even if he realised it he will say that it’s boring and just as he said “What a resentful ability. To think I had to die 50 times in exchange for killing a single person once, just how much resentment must I have to do this?” if he is desperate or the said king became too much, i think at that time will be when he used this ability or so i think.

Well, his feelings are actually the only reason why he won´t abuse that ability.

But reasonable speaking:
If you can “die” without pain while knowing that you won´t really die and in exchange obtain one use of an invincible power for every 50 “deaths”, would you not aimto get those uses?

He can do that, but he doesn’t want to. Remember his only condition when joining the Momijis was that they don’t make him kill people, so he probably wouldn’t prepare something like an instant kill move.

ummm, it’s a 3 minute respawn time, where do you get one hour from? he can grind fort a free kill in 2,5 hours if he needs to. so it’s actually quite decent as a grinding tool, suicide for a week to get ammo for instant death attacks, then go dragon hunting.

Nope, normal revival time for any “player” is 1 hour.
There are cases when something interferes with revival, e.g. the barrier in the training area during the battle with Aliyah making it 3 hours.
Those 3 minutes are the time needed before a player´s HP start to recover after going down to 0 but not receiving a finishing blow.

Stop talking like u never read a light novel. This is a game like world, not a game.
Like in Log horizon he definetly loses memories of his former life each time he dies.
It´s ALWAYS the memories, if nothing else is said.
That started in teh Neverending Story, eachtime you make a wish and gain power, you lose a part of ypur memories. They already have problems remembering and he seems already worse of than Aliya

In the past, Fir gained power in a few incidents (as far as people could feasibly know).
0) Tutorial (1) -> (7) in the middle of nowhere. [Which probably doesn’t work really well]

1) From his power that was weaker than the Wood Family Grandpa (7) to when he met his sempai (11)—which is huge.

2) But he is in the school at that level pretty much the whole time and not being that noticeable, to the extent that the girls (when his fiancée comes in) comment on him being low key possibly because of that.

3) He gains level 12 against a hopper in the forest, but that could just be that he was focusing his power and thus achieved a new level in real combat—since from the sounds of it, he was absurdly strong at level 11; and since his skill ranks still grew even if his level didn’t, it meant he was showing steady improvement either way.

4) But then he goes from (12) to (13) against more hoppers, which is less explainable; but still within the realms of talent to a certain extent.

5) Going from level (13) to (18) though, from the quest against the murderer is way too much.

6) He then went to level (19) with the sleeping quest.

But if you just look at it from the viewpoint of smart people who aren’t from the other world it falls down smaller points.

0) Unknown past, who knows how he got strong (7).

1) He was in a magicians experiment, where the magician in question disappeared for training soon after (implying he felt he wasn’t strong enough), all while Fir was estimated to be weaker than Grandpa Wood (12)—by the man himself if by no one else. But the next time he is seen, after a dangerous experiment where it’s implied many people tend to die (though that’s for native magicians, rather than other world magicians)… he’s suddenly level 11—which is INCIDENT 1 of suspected death.

2) He then is growing steadily (his skills are going up), even if his level stays at (11), but he starts getting watched due to his near death and gaining of a Light Wing; which is apparently powerful enough that he learns Light Magic instantly somehow (impressing his sempai).—-INCIDENT 2 of suspected death.

3) Which 11->12->13 may be ignored due to how fuzzy his exact power was to those who can’t see numerical values for strength, as natural consolidation of power in times of battle by someone who is genuinely a genius, the level 13->18 thing happens right after he not only challenges a mass murderer, but more importantly after seeing a fight between the murderer and an assassin. With the suspicious story that he was told by the assassin that the guy was the murderer (instead of being killed as a witness).—INCIDENT 3 of suspected death.

4) Even while being watched carefully, it most likely wasn’t seen that he gained from (18) to (19) by the natives, but what he shows off with the auto leveling of skills against the (23) demon is pretty absurd. Which makes his true power seem around level 23 (or at least he noted his stats are around that level with the weapon he received from the forest quest and princess gift).

5) This leads up to here, where it’s even more obvious that he’s dead—and died in a flower of ice.

[Snowing Moon – Ice Flower
‘This skill is only limited to women. If a man is to forcefully use it, he will turn into an ice sculpture, and without any aid within an hour, the man will die.’]

And with his frozen sculpture and 1 hour revival time—it’s perfect.

It looks like he’s a ‘genius’ who barely managed to use the third skill in a desperate moment forcefully, turned into an ice sculpture, then died.

But then he comes back.

And Fir is planning on doing so after going to the dungeon with Yuon.

Thus he’ll probably have gained several levels (since Yuon is probably stronger than the 3 sempai at this point), especially if they share quests with Fir using the 20,000 Bounty (that she didn’t split with him—which he said he would remember) as a reason why they should share the quest and the rewards to a certain extent.

(10) (20) and (25) were the rough 3 ranges of power in the academy according to Fir.

So if he gains around 5 levels (24), plus his still existing equipment, he’ll be stronger than an advanced team member as well most likely.

But before that point, (23) is probably enough to fight against forbidden magic (which sounds more a cheat than (13 ->23) Demon, on a foe that started out stronger in the first place), gain a level to (24) from that fight, and then fight the advanced team on above even grounds with his superior equipment.